Video Gaps and Event recording

[KyleK]

I have had my Arlo Pro 2 for nearly a month now. I have tried to set up the camera how I like, and playing with the settings to avoid false alarms. I’m getting fed up with the Arlo and I’m close to returning it for something that has CVR without a ridiculous monthly cost. Anyway.. I have tried to set the device to record when there is movement and to keep recording until movement stops. I have it plugged in, so I should be getting 3 seconds before the motion starts as advertised. Neither of those are working. It stops recording after 12-15 seconds, and seldomly shows 3 seconds before the motion. I’ve updated firmware, changed the angle of the camera, and changed sensitivity settings too, all that with no luck. The last thing I’m trying is changing the event recording setting to just record 200 seconds of video if it detects motion. Is there any other advice to get this overpriced camera to do what it says it can?

Thanks

[steve_t]

Can you post a screenshot or clip from this camera? What sensitivity setting have you settled on? Unfortunately, for the fixed recording time, the max is 120 seconds

[KyleK]

Unfortunately it’s not allowing me to post a video from my phone at this time. But, I can tell you my sensitivity is set at 95.

[KyleK]

Here’s video #1
https://youtu.be/48n9YJe7moM
You can see the water delivery guy, he gathers two jugs and turns to walk toward the camera, and the video cuts.

Video #2
https://youtu.be/xS82Nf1F1vg

Another example of the 3 second look back not working, and the video cuts early.

[steve_t]

Video #1 - I think the time when he's getting stuff out of the truck, he's not being detected by the PIR so it decides to quit recording a few seconds before it does. In that time he's started to walk back towards the camera so it's too late.

Video #2 - the camera takes a while to 'recycle' itself and transfer the data to the base and get ready to record again. It seems the 3 second lookback is working and it's the 3 second mark where the water guy pops out from behind the light to trigger the PIR. The time where the water guy is moving around behind the light is the pre-recorded lookback part. Again the water guy goes back to the truck and in that time, the camera doesn't detect any motion so decides to stop recording but just as it stops, he's already walking back towards the camera. 

These cameras work off PIR motion detectors. Just because there's movement in the frame, doesn't mean it's detected. For that sort of thing, you need pixel change motion detection. The other major drawback with PIR sensors is they aren't very good at detecting objects moving towards them. They have an array of invisible beams and multiple need to be broken for motion detection. They work best when the object moves from one side of the FOV to the other side

[KyleK]

Okay, so would a solution would be to move the camera maybe to the other side of the garage? Maybe more side to side movement? Or maybe if I decide to leave the 120 second recording on, will there be another gap if the motion continues past 120 seconds?

[steve_t]

Yep. A different position would definitely be my first thought.
Yes, unfortunately, you would have 120 seconds of recording and then the same sort of recycling time before motion could be detected again to start another 120 seconds of recording. 

For my front yard/driveway area, because it's the most likely approach point for the house, I have 2 cameras at 90 degrees to each other. One's on the fence and one captures approaching people/cars. Both record on motion but also trigger the other camera to record. It doesn't really sort the issue of gaps due to the camera no longer detecting motion but it definitely covers both angles well and tends to record what I need it to record. I probably don't need both now as it's a throwback to the original Arlo camera which had much poorer motion sensing and a much longer recycle time